


Dainty Stars

by notreserenade



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Rare Pairings, Shorts, suggestions are welcome!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-08-23 02:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16610264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notreserenade/pseuds/notreserenade
Summary: Yachi deserves the world.A collection of shorts featuring Yachi-pairings.





	1. kageyama x yachi -- crowded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aquarium date featuring kageyachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Random_Reader717! Hope you like it!

"I'm a man -- a _nd I am manly as hell."_

Kageyama winces at how idiotic the words that were coming out of his mouth sounded out loud. As the faint gut feeling was telling him, he should've probably not taken advice on how to woe girls from Tanaka, who didn't have the best record of succeeding at such himself. But feeling like he didn't have much of a choice, Kageyama turned to the self-proclaimed master of love in defeat as the rest of his team were too busy teasing him on the fact that the muscle-driven simpleton was actually attempting to go a date with someone.

How did Tanaka Ryuunosuke strut around, saying embarrassing things with such confidence, such grace? 

Examining his own posture, Kageyama glared at the mirror in front of him through squinted eyes. Was it his hair? His appearance had never been something that he had cared about. Kageyama's nest of hair was always freely flying in whatever direction gravity decided to take it, and his casual clothes were always chosen out of comfort. 

Never did he think that going out on a date would require so much effort.

Asking out Yachi Hitoka was probably the biggest hurdle that he'd ever had to overcome in his life, with the second being to realize that he was actually crushing on her. Starting from the mere feelings of being grateful for her enthusiasm and hard work during practice to wanting to know how her small hands would feel like in his, the fact that he was able to realize his feelings towards her almost felt like some kind of enlightenment that opened a door he had never opened in the back of his brain, revealing all kinds of emotions that he had never felt for anyone before. As if everything was happening all at once, he'd catch himself rewinding Yachi's hearty laughter in his head before he closed his eyes to drift off to sleep at night, or intentionally walk at a slower pace whenever they walked side by side to be able to match his pace with hers. She was so precious, and he felt so completely at loss over what he was supposed to do with his built up frustration over feelings that he didn't understand.

Kageyama's brain was shutting down from being completely at loss on what he was supposed to do to calm his nerves. Why was he so nervous? The confidence that he usually bore with such pride was suddenly nowhere to be found. After all, this wasn't the volleyball court. This was... well, this was well out of his comfort zone. 

It's mind-boggling how he could find the courage to ask Yachi on a date. They were going to spend time outside of court to visit an aquarium, eat hamburgers and talk about things they liked and it was all so very new to Kageyama. Ask him about how he asked her on the date and he'd immediately try to change the topic of discussion because quite frankly, the way he asked her was rather pathetic. "So the aquarium has no volleyballs to pick up, or water-bottles to fill." he had started, too nervous to think about making sense, momentarily thinking that being a manager was all Yachi did even outside of club practice.

What if Yachi only liked the way he was during practice? Or during matches? Surely she couldn't be that shallow, right? He knew she wasn't. And yet, here he was, drenched in cold sweat and self-doubt over the one girl that actually succeeded to make his heart tingle and palms sweaty.

It was truly a miracle. 

 _She_ was a miracle.

Kageyama takes three deep breaths and decides to finish the routine that Tanaka had told him to do if he felt like he was going to throw up from being too nervous. According to Tanaka, feeling nauseous was just a side-effect of being nervous before a date. It was apparently very normal.

“YOU LIFT WEIGHTS. AND DRINK BEER."

 _Wait, no I don't,_ Kageyama thinks. _I'm underage._

With a frown, he tries again.

"AND... AND DRINK MILK."

With a satisfied nod, Kageyama gives himself a thumbs up and walks out the bathroom to meet Yachi at the aquarium entrance, completely oblivious to the fact that he had completely and utterly embarrassed himself by speaking too loud to himself in a bathroom filled with queuing people.

\---

Yachi was wearing a white sundress that draped to her knees and had her hair tied back in a slightly messy pony-tail -- a hairstyle that Kageyama hadn't seen her in before. Kageyama had always thought that outer appearances were something that you couldn't really do much about. He never quite understood why the girls in his class would try to curl their hair or wear extensive make-up on picture day, since to him they all looked the same. Why did they put so much effort in trying to look beautiful, when they probably would appear to be beautiful to the one who likes them anyway? 

Yachi didn't need to try to beautiful. From the bright smile she'd give him during practice to her long eyelashes that brushed her cheeks when she closed her eyes, she already was.

\---

Kageyama had never been to the local aquarium before, and so he'd entrusted Hinata to buy the aquarium tickets for him the day before just to be on the safe side of not accidentally buying the wrong tickets. But, _just like anything else you'd entrust Hinata Shouyo with outside of the volleyball court_ , of course that was a bad idea. It turned out that Hinata had bought exclusive tickets for the shark aquarium.

 _The shark aquarium,_ when the two of them had been talking about how scary sharks were just the day before, and how Yachi had nightmares for a full month about sharks when she first saw the "Sharks" movie.

Man he wanted to smack himself _._ And new friends.

_Man, he wanted new friends._

Kageyama had just returned from the washroom and was ready to meet Yachi at the entrance with great enthusiasm and newly pumped-up confidence, until he had laid his eyes upon a very pale Yachi that was gaping at the worker in front of her. She'd been lead to aquarium's special entrance of "Shark Week" after having had their tickets checked. Mortified upon realizing Hinata's huge mistake (and his own for trusting him), he immediately prepared his stance to get down to his knees to apologize, making Yachi completely flustered as she flailed her arms around in an attempt to assure him that she was alright.

With a light touch to his hand, she gives him a smile that almost makes him forget how to breathe. "It's okay, Kageyama-kun! Really, it's fine! since you've already bought the tickets and all. I'll try to, uh-I'll try to look at you whenever I become scared or something!" she squeaks. "Besides, I'll probably be okay since you're next to me." 

Her words trail off rather quickly at the end of her sentence. Her gaze was averted with embarrassment and cheeks slightly pink. Feeling his own cheeks burn up from her bold statement, Kageyama quickly straightens up and gives her an awkward nod. Not quite sure of how he was supposed to react, he blurts out the first thing he could think of on top of his head in response.

"I-I'll try to make my face pleasant for you."

\---

The two of them entered the shark aquarium. The tank of sharks was located at the end of the entrance, which gave them a little time to mentally prepare themselves before they'd face them. Since they were meeting on a weekend, the aquarium was rather crowded and filled with everything from families that finally had the time to spend some time with their children on a weekend, to couples who contemplated on whether or not they should each other's hands. Upon seeing the couples, Kageyama couldn't help but suddenly be aware of how small the distance was between Yachi's hands were to his -- a distance enforced by the crowded space, shortening the centimeters between them. 

Whenever Yachi was nervous or scared, she'd start to ramble. The way she'd go on and on about whether the tomatoes at the supermarket were fresh or not when she went out shopping for some the night before a few hours before an official match was so cute, that even the usually one-track minded Kageyama Tobio couldn't help but laugh at it. The rest of the team would also find it hilarious, but were always rather quick to feel desperate for her to calm down before her nervousness would spread to them. 

 _Weird,_ Kageyama would then think.  _Listening to her only helps me calm down._

Kageyama glanced over at Yachi, who was holding down her frantic state like a lion locked in a cage. The fact that she was speaking almost twice as fast than she usually was when she'd ramble definitely meant that she was really nervous.

"You know, Kageyama-kun, my mom would always tell me to not be scared of anything when I was younger, but I find that to be delusional because how could someone not be scared of  _anything_ _?"_ Yachi asks with a nervous laugh.

"That's probably because they've never met Oikawa-san at the volleyball court," Kageyama says with a small smile, realizing that she was going off tangents again. 

"H-Hinata-kun taught me a trick to calm down my nerves the other day!" Yachi almost half-screams as the two of them approached the half-way point to the shark tanks. "He told me to mention all of the things that I liked out loud before facing something really scary."

She pauses, and meets Kageyama's eyes with an awkward smile. "I'll start. Okay. Right. I like bacon, rainy summers, daisies, food documentaries, new textbooks-"

She went on and on. Cloudy mornings, light-blue sticky notes, blending watercolors. Kageyama listened attentively, trying to mark down anything he might be able to use for future reference. But as she continued her growing list of things she fancied, Kageyama's eyes widen at the mention of his own name.

But before either of them could register Yachi's sudden confession/attack, Yachi's voice breaks both their trail of thoughts. "B-BEHIND YOU!" she yelps, suddenly tugging Kageyama's sleeve with shaking hands. Kageyama, whose mind was completely over the moon over the fact that Yachi Hitoka, the girl that he had secretly contemplated on asking out for almost six months, was actually liking him back, turned around and met the eyes of a great white shark. Feeling his cold sweat starting to drench his shirt as if his life-span was being cut short by twenty years, Kageyama immediately starts to rewind Tanaka's self-pep routine in his mind.

 _Keep calm. You're a MAN. YOU'RE A MAN,_ he repeats in his mind as he mentally slaps himself.

"It's pro-probably a nice mammal if it wasn't for his murderous tendencies." Kageyama starts to mutter, trying his best not to sound as out of his mind as actually was.

"R-right! Maybe he's a rightful citizen who pays taxes and helps kittens if it wasn't for his-HIS KILLER TENDENCIES." Yachi squeals at the end of her sentence before burying her face behind Kageyama's sleeve. She was almost completely curled behind him now, and for a second, Kageyama's focus completely shifts from the sharp teeth of the sharks in front of him and over to how close she was to him.

Feeling his heart bursting in his chest, the fear that he had felt only a few seconds ago suddenly completely washes away.

He could do this. With her clinging to him like this? He could probably even do this if the aquarium glass broke. And so, with his hands swiftly taking her small, shaken ones, he decides to lead the way through the shark tanks.

 

Maybe he didn't need new friends, after all.

 


	2. akaashi x yachi -- the stars in her hair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nervous baby birds featuring akayachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried my best, hu hu. Requested by Neve_Azzurro. Hope you like it! :)

The gentle wind of a late afternoon breezes through the door of the volleyball club room, blowing it open wide enough for Akaashi to find Yachi Hitoka asleep in a corner beside a volleyball cart.

He had been wondering where she was. Having had found his eyes traveling through crowds to scan faces in an attempt to search for her throughout the day, Akaashi had become visibly disappointed to not have gotten to see her today.  
  
With his gym bag slung over his shoulder, jacket zipped up to his chin and his mind is a bit in a haze of not having had his daily dose of Yachi, Akaashi was just about to head home from practice—until he noticed the door to the volleyball’s club room had been moving with the wind; making light squeaky noises that blended with the sound of leaves rasping from the trees.

The sight of Yachi sleeping by the volleyball cart was something Akaashi never thought that he’d see. Yachi, who was always so quick to her feet and whose voice sometimes shook like a maple leaf in the autumn wind, was always somewhere doing something, and so to have found her being completely at peace in a stillness that was only possible because she was away from the team members made it a little hard for Akaashi to breathe.

She was so beautiful, with her eyelashes brushing her pink cheeks and her hair following the directions of the light wind that entered the room.

Akaashi’s not sure when he started noticing the smallest things about her presence, but everything from the little star hairband that she wore every day to the way she would frequently trip over thin air, Akaashi had begun throughout the months of getting to know her to grow increasingly aware of Yachi Hitoka.

He became concerned over whether she was eating properly or if she ever rested, and sometimes, during days when the little blonde would be her endearing self even more so than usual, if she was ever as aware of him as he was of her.

Akaashi had once wondered, that if she was so nervous around the team, then why was she still working as their manager?

She didn't have an obligation to do so. She didn't need to open the club room at 7 AM in the morning even though she lived almost an hour away, or give Bokuto high fives whenever he felt so inclined to get them from her despite being slightly afraid for her life at the strength that Bokuto used in them.

 _She didn't need to,_  and yet there she was; every single day since they started high school, giving her all in everything she did and was told to do.

  
Afraid of waking her up, Akaashi decides to quietly sit down next to her. Surely the smallest of sounds would wake her up, being the way that she was. Attentive and focused almost all the time, not being able to catch a break even when her body was screaming for her to do so.

Akaashi’s eyes travel down to her small hands which were resting on her knees. They were sloppily covered with band-aids.

She must've hurt herself while helping Bokuto with his spikes.

"That idiot..." Akaashi mutters quietly as he puts his head in his palm, silently gazing at the rare sight of Yachi Hitoka being calm and still.

All this time, Akaashi had thought that it was just his second nature kicking in from being the oldest in his family, who was used to take care of his siblings. All this time, he thought that he was just observant.

But somewhere along the stolen glances and excuses, he knew that he had already fallen for her. Excuses that he had used so many times to let him keep their comfortable distance with one another were slowly starting to lose its meaning, as it had dawned upon Akaashi a long time ago that despite having a comfort zone of a distance that didn't scare her away was assuring, it wasn't what he wanted. 

Distance wasn't something that he wanted with her. His feelings of wanting to help her, wanting to calm her down, wanting to pat her back, telling her that she did well--they were not just things that he felt inclined to do because of his caring nature. It was things that he  _wanted_  to do. For himself.

A gush of wind travels through the door and blows gently to their faces, making Yachi stir.

Akaashi shoots to his feet. 

"Akaashi-san?" her small voice calls out. He turns around to a Yachi who rubs her eyes, half asleep and very cute.

Feeling the breeze getting stronger through the window, Akaashi quickly zips off his jacket and puts it over her head.

"Sleep. No one's around," he mutters, trying to mask his embarrassment by lowering his voice, as he didn't know what to do besides escaping the scene to refrain from explaining why he was staring at her while she was asleep.

Only when he was completely out of Yachi's sight did he allow his hands to travel to his burning face to facepalm himself at his attempt to sound cool.

\---

Yachi had never been the type to complain if she was having a hard time. She was so used to conceal whatever emotions that'd make the people around her worry.

So why couldn't she control herself in front of him?

She was too comfortable around him. From all the coincidental meetings they'd had after that one moment of Akaashi finding her asleep, the two of them found each other to gradually speak to one another more often than they had before. Everything from favourite foods to what type of music they listened to, their conversations flowed far more naturally than any other conversation that Yachi had ever had with someone.

He was so patient and so kind. The way he'd smile at her out-of-control rambles, or the way he'd lightly touch her hand when he'd notice how nervous she was before their official matches. 

Maybe it was his gentle gaze, or soft touch... o _r beautiful smile,_  that had her heart squeeze every time she'd find their eyes meet.

Yachi was having another one of those anxiety-ridden bursts at the pit of her stomach that she'd always get from time to time. They always left her feeling hopeless and shaken, almost as if she'd become too drunk of her emotions to coherently register whatever was happening around her. The worst part of this was, she never needed a solid reason for feeling like this, which is exactly why she'd always try to find a place to hide this side of her.

But yet again, she had failed to hide from him. 

She knew that he had probably been trying to find her. But never did she expect for him to find her so fast. She had, for a moment, forgotten that she was no longer the lone person to go to the club room. 

 _He was here_ , in front of her, his eyes filled with worry and eyebrows furrowed -- almost as if he was feeling angry, worried and sad all at once.

With slightly trembling hands, he softly cups her cheeks and speaks in his most soft voice possible, not aware that his voice dripped with longing for her to understand how beautiful and passionate she was.

"Look at me."

Yachi feels so embarrassed. This wasn't what she wanted him to see. Her current state was the last thing she'd want anyone to find herself being in. But Yachi peaks through her fingers to look at Akaashi anyway, and finds herself being only a few centimeters away from Akaashi's face, making her eyes trail down to his facial features. His sharp eyebrows, his deep, grey eyes, his long lashes, his sharp nose.

_His gentle smile._

God how she loved his gentle smile.

"It's going to be okay. You're okay." Akaashi whispers to her softly. 

Yachi closes her eyes, and lets her cheeks feel the warmth of his palms.

"Okay?"

He sounds almost a little desperate this time.

The two of them were still so densely unaware of each other's feelings, but even then could they feel the sense of knowing that lingered in the room when Yachi puts her small hands on Akaashi' hand and gives him a small smile back.

"Okay". 


	3. yamaguchi x yachi -- third time's the charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> grocery shopping featuring yamayachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dances with jazz hands* hi hi hello! It's me again! Thanks for reading!
> 
> Requested by Sugarsweetie17.

The first time Yamaguchi coincidentally got to meet the blonde-haired girl whose light-brown eyes sparkled with diligence and smile made his lanky legs weak, was at the age of sixteen. Being the shy boy that he was at the time, he'd find himself always stumble over his words and cheeks flaming hot whenever he got the chance to talk to her, whom despite being quite reserved herself, always met his gaze with warmth and adoration. She was the last person he'd find himself think about before going to sleep, and the first person to try to find when he arrived to his locker by the school entrance, and so **if** it wasn't any more obvious at this point, Yamaguchi Tadashi had naïvely and utterly fallen head over heels for Yachi Hitoka.

Being a nervous, slightly awkward and lanky sixteen-year-old wasn't easy for Yamaguchi. Despite having had joined the volleyball club in an attempt to make some new friends, he found himself still rather uncomfortable in his own shoes and tended to unintentionally mimic (and sometimes even hide behind) his childhood friend's snarky tongue and confidence. Perhaps it was habitual, considering the fact that he'd been to the same school as Tsukishima since elementary school.

For Yachi to become a part of the volleyball team didn't help much with his awkwardness either. If anything, he probably became even more self-conscious and hyper-aware of the court floor or anywhere but Yachi's face whenever she was present.

She was so  _cute_ , and it was a problem. 

From the way she'd run towards him with a water-bottle as if he was actually dying from dehydration to her small voice joining the team's cheers before matches, there was probably not a single thing that Yamaguchi didn't adore about her. More often than not, he'd get side-eyed by Tsukishima, who, being the smart-ass that he was, noticed his friend's heart eyes long before he'd notice them himself. 'Just pretend you're me', he'd advise his friend when he'd ask for advice for appearing more confident in front of her. 

 _Right,_ Yamaguchi would then think,  _as if it was that simple._

But it was, in fact, quite simple, as he'd later find out after getting to know Yachi within the first few months of club activities. Simple interactions during practice slowly became daily full-fledged conversations during lunch break, and soon the two of them found themselves laughing and chatting away during their rendezvous in between classes. Inside jokes that Tsukishima would groan at only became funnier with time, and timid touches of helping each other's bed-head made his teammates' all the more suspicious over how close and comfortable the timid and soft boy that Yamaguchi was, was around their equally timid manager. Even the muscle-driven blockhead Kageyama Tobio would occasionally turn his head with a cocked eyebrow at the sight of how much Yachi would be talking in front of Yamaguchi.

\---

The second time Yamaguchi coincidentally meets Yachi was at the grocery store on a Saturday evening. He had been sent by his mother to run some errands, and boy was he glad that he did. At this point, he'd known Yachi for almost two years, and although they were rather close friends in school, their conversations never really strayed away from what was the present. In other words, Yamaguchi didn't know much about Yachi other than her likes and dislikes, habits and fears, and-

Okay, maybe he  _did_ know quite a lot about her. But Yamaguchi had yet to meet her outside of school, and had during the two years of knowing her yet to ask her out on a weekend to hang out.

Like friends did.

Or non-friends. Whatever she was comfortable with, really.

"Tadashi-kun!" Yamaguchi had heard her voice call his name in a sea of people who were trying to pick their share of cheap vegetables. She was wearing casual clothes, and even though she looked cute in her uniform,  _boy_ was she cute in a hoodie and sweatpants.

Blushing, Yamaguchi waved to her as he tried to squish through the crowd to her side. "Hey Hitoka!" he'd greeted her with his sheepish grin as he internally debated over whether it was appropriate to hug her or not.

But only as a greeting, though. You know, like friends did.

The two accompanied each other at the grocery store, conversing like they usually did. Occasionally, Yamaguchi would shift her closer to the side to avoid being completely squished by literally everyone since she was so small.  _Thank goodness Yachi can't read minds,_ Yamaguchii had thought as he strolled beside Yachi with her jumping hair, almost feeling a little guilty over the fact that he'd thought that they probably looked like newly-weds, with them sharing a food-cart and all. 

With a quick glance at his watch as they'd arrived at the check-out counters, Yamaguchi decided to take a leap of faith and ask whether Yachi was okay with him walking her back to her apartment since it had become rather dark outside, and although he would've never dared to admit it out loud, he'd also wished to spend a little more time with her even if it meant that it was only for a few more minutes.

"But aren't your groceries heavy?" she had then asked, which Yamaguchi quickly shook his head to, already feeling his smile spread across his lips upon sensing her approval.

"Not at all. I could carry all of yours if you wanted to." 

\---

The third time Yamaguchi coincidentally met Yachi was when Yamaguchi had accidentally marked the wrong date of the entrance exam that he had planned on taking at a college he'd been wanting to attend. Failing to have noticed his mistake, Yamaguchi had been studying for an entrance exam a month too early, and had found the college to be completely empty from exam-taking students when he'd arrived at the entrance gate.

Except, he'd found a very confused Yachi by the entrance gate too. _Surely this is destiny_ , Yamaguchi had thought when Yachi explained that she too had accidentally marked the same date as Yamaguchi. 

The two of them had been so nervous the night before, cramming every single detail they thought would be useful for the exam to a point where they had felt like their brain would explode. Upon realizing their mistake, and that they had even made the  _same_ mistake at that, made them both burst out in laughter, relieving all the stress and anxiety that they had built up the night before.

"Tsukishima is  _so_ going to make fun of you for this," Yachi said while still laughing after a series of laughing fits.

"So will he of you," Yamaguchi replied back, his hands over his stomach to prevent stomach cramps from laughing too much.

It was, just like the second time that they had met outside of school, a Saturday, so besides the entrance exam, neither of them had anything planned for the day. Yamaguchi decided then, with the girl whose light laughter rung in his ears and smile that melted his heart in front of him, that it was now or never.

They were, after all, going to graduate soon. If all went well, they might even go to the same college considering the fact that they were about to take the same entrance exam. But with all things considered, there was surely no use in trying to hide the way he felt for her anymore when he'd spent the past two years only looking at her. She had been right beside him all along, and he felt foolish for thinking that he was just okay with being friends with her.

The irony in that was, of course, that literally everyone who knew them already knew their feelings for each other besides, well, themselves.

And so, with a deep breath and fist clenched, Yamaguchi awkwardly delivers his final leap of faith, hoping that his stars align and luck will be by his side as he asks her out on a date.


	4. kuroo x yachi -- tarantulas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cafeteria conversations featuring kurooyachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is grammar. Thanks to ivyous, Ehg1720 and OrChan12 for requesting kuroyachi! I'd be cheating if I was to compensate three people with one update, so look forward for some more kuroyachi updates very soon! As always, all kinds of feedback are greatly appreciated. Your encouraging comments are literally the reason for making me want to update this, so thank you so much!

Kuroo Tetsurou. 

"Even his name sounds cool," Yachi whispers to herself as she finds her eyes glued to the tall, black-haired boy whose charismatic smile seemingly lightened up the whole volleyball court. Karasuno was in Tokyo for their practice camp, and although it's only been a few days, she'd already been completely swept off her feet by the presence of the Nekoma captain. How was he so witty and confident at the very same time? It was a mystery to her, who was so used to fret over every single detail that there could be to fret over. 

He was quite the looker, too. Yachi wasn't the type to gush over boys very much, which explains why she'd been so embarrassed over how she'd so visibly blush over the sight of Kuroo wiping his forehead sweat with his shirt, exposing his chiseled abs in the process. _That's it,_  she'd think to herself as she'd attempt to cover her flaming cheeks with her palms,  _I'm officially a pervert. And doomed as a human being._

The way he'd occasionally ruffle her hair as thanks for handing him towels or water-bottles didn't help, either. His touch was always so gentle despite how large he looked next to Yachi's small frame, and his small helping gestures, though might have been gone unnoticed by the boys around them, were definitely noticed by Yachi as she was usually the one who'd do them for others. His overwhelming presence that screamed perfect was almost a bit too much for Yachi to bear, and if he didn't stop with whatever he was doing that was making Yachi's heartbeat off her chest, she'd probably have no chance in surviving the occasionally recurring arrhythmia that she was experiencing.

It's only been a few days since the camp had started, and Yachi found herself feeling a bit ashamed over how much she's already become fond of the Nekoma captain. It was so easy to like him, and it made her worried. What if he was two-faced and really was nothing like the way that he appeared to be? What if he was a demonic predator that ruled the underworld during his weekends? She'd promised herself to be less gullible during high school, and so if it meant to try avoiding to fall for Kuroo Tetsuro, then so be it because how dare she falls for a boy only a few days of knowing his existence! Her mother, who had always lovingly taught her that men were trash, would be so, incredibly disappointed with her.

And so with her mother's legacy in mind, Yachi decided to take upon the quest of finding things she'd possibly dislike about Kuroo. It wasn't going to be easy, considering the fact that there hasn't been a single thing she'd found herself disliking about him so far, but perhaps with a little help from Nishinoya and Tanaka, she'd probably do fine.

_Probably._

\---

"D-Do you like cats?!" Yachi hears herself squeak with a broken voice as she sat with him during lunch break.

Tanaka had suggested for them to talk to each other more often and limit any sort of distance that Yachi had been trying to keep from him in order to have enough to time to find things to dislike about him. "This plan is bulletproof!" he'd claimed with excited arms after Yachi was done explaining her situation to him. The odd trio had been going through numerous of ways for Yachi to avoid the Kuroo, and ultimately opted for Tanaka's plan after Nishinoya had suggested that it was usually a smarter move to keep an enemy close. After some intensive discussing, the trio decided on the plan being to hopefully find out that Kuroo disliked the things she absolutely loved. And with Yachi being the meticulous person that she was, she'd even prepared a list of things that she loved in a little notebook that she was now carrying around her everywhere in case she'd get the chance to talk to him.

But instead of getting the answer Yachi had expected him to say, Kuroo gives her the most charming smile she'd ever seen, as if he was knowingly making Yachi almost melt off her chair. " _Do I_ like cats?" he answers with a laugh, nudging a very focused Kenma beside him. "Hey Kenma, tell her how many cats I have at home."

"Dunno," Kenma mutters in reply, his eyes solely focused on his game as his food sits on the table untouched.

Ignoring his friend's apathy, Kuroo drops his chopsticks and holds up his big, calloused palm. "Five," he says after swallowing an overly-sized portion of rice, "I have five cats. So yes, I definitely love cats."

Yachi pauses. Dang it! How could she be shot down so easily on her first try? She thinks of the list in her pocket. What else did she have in store?

"Um." she starts, averting her gaze in an attempt to avoid meeting his burning gaze. "What about food?"

Kuroo cocks an eyebrow at her suspiciously, but doesn't address his thoughts. Instead, he suggests a game. "Want to play a game, Yachi-san? Let's have..." he scans through the canteen, completely ignoring the ridiculous faces that Nishinoya and Tanaka were making at him. They'd been sandwiching between Yachi the whole time, and didn't spare a second on easing their glaring expressions towards Kuroo. "Let's go with this nice guy here." Kuroo says, grabbing the shoulders of a very confused Yaku who was just about to leave the cafeteria. Lev had probably been a better contender as he'd overheard their conversation and was waving his hand frankly in front of Kuroo's face, but with Kuroo being his usual, cheeky self, it was obvious to anyone who knew him that he wasn't going to let that happen.

Also, Lev was a glass cannon, considering his brutal honesty and blissfully ignorant remarks.

"W-what?" Yaku mutters, his eyebrows knitted together of both annoyance and fatigue as he wore an expression on his face that screamed  _'please leave me alone'._

"A game."

"Okay?"

"Say two things for Yachi-san and me to choose between, and we'll answer together to see if we match."

Yachi wasn't sure how things so suddenly went out of her hands. She had definitely not planned on getting so many people involved, considering how many boys were surrounding the table that she was sitting at with Kuroo. But with Kuroo being Kuroo, she probably should've guessed that things were going to turn out like this. Yachi would've run away ages ago if she'd seen how annoyed she'd gotten someone, but Kuroo was so smooth at handling people. Admittedly, even Yachi would've been suspicious of a person who'd continuously try to find out about her likes and dislikes. Yachi must've made him thought that she was trying to pick a fight with him, which was probably why he was trying to involve more people in order to make the whole situation less awkward.

A sigh escapes Yachi's lips.  _How admirable,_ she thinks to herself as she observes the boy in front of her, only to receive two simultaneous nudges from both Tanaka and NIshinoya, who were sending mental messages that warned of her heart-eyes showing.

Another sigh escapes Yachi's lips. _'Alright.'_ she thought to herself and slapped her palms on her face to lead her focus back to her purpose, startling everyone around the table. Finally daring to meets eyes with Kuroo, Yachi speaks in her loudest voice possible as if challenging her destined enemy.

"Alright! Let's do this!"

Amused and a little surprised over Yachi's sudden enthusiasm, Kuroo nods with a smirk.

"Alright, okay. You guys ready?" Yaku mutters with a yawn.

Yachi and Kuroo yell their replies while pumping their fists in the air.

"Yeah yeah, okay. Let's get this over with... uh, okay so let's do three speed-rounds. First round; Ramen or Udon?"

"Udon!" 

"Cats or dogs?"

"Cats!" 

"MUJI or Adidas?"

"MUJI!"

A short pause lingers between the people around the table, and Yachi finds herself meeting Kuroo's eyes again. Not only did they reply with the same things simultaneously, but he answered  _Muji._

Muji. Muji stationary? He couldn't be-

"D-Do you like their stationary, too?!" Yachi almost screams at him, completely forgetting her purpose for playing the game in the first place. 

"Well yeah, they have such wide assortment of pencils in various colours and sizes-"

"THEIR HIGHLIGHTERS ARE FANTASTIC!"

Yachi takes out the pencil from her small shoulder bag. "And-and these too! These ballpens exist in so many colours, and are even refillable! The ink is so light and doesn't stain over the pages at all-"

Kuroo chuckles at the site of an excited Yachi, who was completely oblivious over the disappointed glances that the two boys she was sandwiched in-between were giving her. She was so excited about the quality of the pencil that she was holding, and it was so cute.

Kuroo had been quite surprised over how she'd suddenly approached him, as she only seemed to be avoiding him whenever  _he'd_ tried to approach _her_.

Thanks to Kuroo's sneaky nature, the boys at the camp had yet to know that he'd actually been secretly begging Daichi to introduce their new, very cute manager in training to him, but had only earned scoffs and glares in return from the Karasuno captain as if saying _how dare he_ get close to their precious child.

\---

The boys that had surrounded Yachi and Kuroo's table silently left one by one as they sensed the Nekoma captain giving them occasional glares as if asking what the hell they were still doing there (which thankfully for Kuroo were left completely unnoticed by Yachi, who was too busy gushing over her love for stationary). Soon enough, there were only Kuroo and Yachi left in the cafeteria, who suddenly found themselves conversing excitedly with each other about stationary and colour-coding notebooks. It was surprising to both of them how easy it was to talk to each other now that they were finally alone, and with them conveniently talking about something that Yachi seemed to be so passionate over only benefited Kuroo, who had spent quite some effort himself to get close to her, only to have failed right before succeeding every time because of the protective duo always surrounding her like hawks.

Yachi hands her little notebook in her pocket to Kuroo as they changed the conversation topic to notebook quality, and even let him go through the meticulously written pages. "I recently bought this one, actually! It's small but the pages are quite sturdy," she says, her eyes sparkling excitedly.

Kuroo leafs through the pages, until a particular page catches his eye.

"List of things that Kuroo Tetsuro absolutely needs to dislike?" Kuroo reads out loud as he cocks an eyebrow at Yachi, whose eyes immediately widened as if they belonged to someone who's met with death himself.

"I-" Yachi starts, but Kuroo continues to read her list.

"Blood orange, biology, museums, the rain, pastel colours, bridges, tonkatsu..."

"...and tarantulas." Yachi finishes her list with a quiet voice, completely mortified over how utterly embarrassed she was feeling. How could she let her guard down so easily? She was such a hopeless case, that even Tanaka and Nishinoya had given up on her. The two and only alleys that she had been too distracted by the fact that Shimizu was getting hit on and had left quite abruptly in the midst of Yachi being distracted.

That was, of course, to be expected of the simpleton duo, but still. ' _How could they do this to me?!'_ Yachi mentally cries out as she hides her face in her palms in an attempt to hide her mortifying embarrassment.

"What's this list for anyway?" Kuroo asks her. He was resting his cheek on his palm while giving her a cheeky smile.

Yachi almost stops breathing, but decides that it was better to try gloss over things as much as possible than to run away from him, even if she really, _desperately,_ wanted to.

"T-Tanaka senpai was helping me..." she starts in a quiet voice, and then attempts to quickly finish her sentence in one breath. "Helping me! With... finding reasons for me to stop me from staring at you too much because it might distract me from my managing duty as a manager in training!" 

"You were staring at me?" Kuroo blurts out, not able to contain his excitement or smile.

"B-because! Manager d-duties!" Yachi squeaks, slumping further and further back in her seat.

A minute of a pause is shared between them.

Yachi didn't know what to say. ' _He's going to hate me now.'_ she thought to herself as she mentally hit her head with an imaginary hammer.

"Well," Kuroo then starts, daring to break the delicate silence that seemingly was making Yachi hold her breath so much that she had forgotten to breathe, "it's great that you're so dutiful and all-"

With the cheeky grin returning to his lips, Kuroo pokes a finger from his free hand at Yachi's elbow. "-But I'm delighted to inform you that I could always learn to like tarantulas."

Yachi peaks through her fingers, only to meet eyed with a smirking Kuroo who was wiggling his eyebrows at her.

 _So much for my mother's legacy'_ Yachi then miserably thinks as she finds herself laughing at how cute the boy in front of her was being.


	5. bokuto x yachi -- fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello Kitty slippers featuring bokuyachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays everyone! Ho ho ho, and also, yes, surprise surprise, an update! Thank you for nanachu for requesting bokuyachi! Sorry for not entirely using the plot that you'd suggested -- Slow burn isn't very easy to write in a short I've learned (no shit pommes frites, I'm so stupid I'm sorry). Either way, I hope you still enjoyed my attempt on bokuyachi meeting each other for the first time!

Bokuto Koutaro reminded Yachi of a golden retriever she had once encountered; curling around her leg for her attention as if it was asking her for food or a pat to its small head. 

The Karasuno volleyball team were in Tokyo for their very first practice camp, and although it hadn't been very hard to notice the tall boy with equally tall hair amongst the Fukurodani players, she'd never thought that he'd actually notice  _her_ to a point where he'd actually approach her considering his overwhelming presence that he carried around as Fukurodani's charismatic team captain. 

Which he was. He was so charismatic as the captain of Fukurodani, and equally as playful on the court as he was outside of it. Yachi discovered this by somehow always finding herself being teased by him in numerous of different, creative ways during her stay (squeezing her cheeks as he made weird noises or balancing whatever items he could find on her head were only a few examples amongst many). This made him quite the contrast to Daichi, whom Yachi often found herself hide behind whenever she'd sense a creeping Bokuto near her approximation during the first few days of arriving to Tokyo.

Perhaps it was because she was an easy target, considering the fact that she was like a nervous leaf amongst gigantic trees whenever she'd be surrounded by the volleyball players at the camp. She was so hard to notice amongst the tall, muscly boys around her, but Bokuto had somehow succeeded in easily spotting her, as he had found himself following her tiny star-bound ponytail bobbing around whenever she was called from one place to another. Being the naturally friendly person that Bokuto was, it only made sense for him to be able to approach her so naturally. And despite the fact that Yachi had only known him for just a few days, she'd found herself slowly becoming fond of the cheesy pick-up lines that Bokuto would randomly throw at her (' _Are you French? Because I Eiffel for you', 'you must be Jamaican, 'cause you're Jamaican me crazy')._ The way he'd look at her with his charismatic smile, or ruffle her hair with palms that were bigger than her face became moments that, much to her own surprise, were pretty nice.

He was always so happy, always having so much fun. Yachi have always admired people like that. Unlike her overthinking self whom would often get nervous over the smallest things, Bokuto looked like he always enjoyed himself; whether he was losing or winning, whether he was drinking a disgusting protein shake or eating delicious barbecue. 

"Is Bokuto-san okay?" Haruki had asked Akaashi as the two of them observed their captain sandwiching Yachi's face between two water-bottles after a practice match that Fukurodani had won against Karasuno.

"Has he ever been?" Akaashi had then sighed in response, already sensing his friend's heart-eyes almost popping out of his face. He'd probably be killed by Bokuto (or rather, be killed by is whining) if he was to mention his late-night questions about Yachi Hitoka whenever Akaashi was alone with him ("I wonder if she likes paper planes", "maybe she counts her moles before she showers, too!").

He was like a squealing teenage girl that wouldn't shut up about Yachi, and Akaashi was  _tired._

Akaashi was too familiar with an infatuated Bokuto, and knew one like the back of his palm. His friend was such a hopeless case when it came to girls that he liked. Despite being his confident and charismatic self, which undeniedly had made him quite popular amongst the girls at their high school, he was really just a big softy who only knew to tease his crush like a kindergartener. 

Akaashi wouldn't be able to count all the times he'd called him in the middle of the night because Bokuto couldn't stop thinking about a girl that he liked, making it, as he'd phrased it, "absolutely  _impossible_ to sleep".

"Bokuto-san,  _it's 3 AM_." Akaashi would tell him over and over, only to have Bokuto gushing even more as he'd go over all the reasons for why his crush was perfect and that he was to never stand a chance. And so, by learning the hard way, Akaashi knew now to just answer his call and throw his phone in the drawer since rejecting his call would only mean even more calls and voice-mails throughout the night.

By the looks of how annoying he was behaving around Yachi, the poor girl must be so incredibly frustrated by the muscly jock.

He knew he would be.

\--- 

"Yacchan."

Yachi's never been called 'Yacchan' by Bokuto before, so for a second, she'd hesitated in turning around. 

Monchichi." Yachi hears the familiar voice call for her again. This time, she immediately freezes her steps towards the female dorm and turns around to greet him, her heart now beaming at the fact that he'd called him Yacchan.

" B-Bokuto-san!" she manages to stutter as she felt her heart swell up in her chest upon laying her eyes on his cheeky, boyish grin. Bokuto looked slightly different than normal. His wet hair was laying in all kinds of directions without the usual amount of gel that he'd put in it, and the plastic Hello Kitty-slippers that he was wearing made him look utterly ridiculous. A smile finds her lips when she sees them.

"Your slippers." she thinks out loud.

"Aren't they gorgeous?" Bokuto asks her with his usual cheeky grin. "Got them from my younger sister. They're in my favourite colour, too!" 

He points his toes outwards to show off his yellow Hello Kitty slippers as if he was showing a trophy he'd won to Yachi, who internally screams at how cute he was being.

How dare he be a living, breathing embodiment of a perfect human.

"They're pretty." Yachi laughs, giving him two thumbs up. 

"Just like you then."

Feeling her cheeks burning, Yachi sighs as she gives him the side-eye. "There you go again."

Bokuto wasn't usually particularly smooth when it came to trying to woe the girl he liked. But being the bursting bomb of emotions that he was, he wasn't very good at controlling how he felt either. Their training camp was ending in just a few days, and the thought of not being able to follow the little blob of sunshine around made him desperate enough to pull whatever tricks Kuroo had taught him before she'd leave Tokyo.

"What?" Bokuto blinks innocently at her.

"Teasing me again!" Yachi huffs, trying to rub away the red that was staining her cheeks.

Bokuto grins a toothy grin and scrunches his nose. "I'm not, though. Bokuto Koutaro doesn't lie."

The tone of his voice changes ever so subtly, but so incredibly suddenly that Yachi does a double-take on the boy in front of her. Droplets of water dripped from the strands of his hair, wetting the crew-neck of his t-shirt. The towel around his neck was sloppily placed, almost sliding down from his shoulder.

Without thinking, Yachi reaches an arm in an attempt to adjust it. Bokuto immediately lowers his body to help her reach to it, but upon meeting each other's eyes with their faces only inches apart from each other, the two turns away in an attempt to hide their blushing faces.

"I also like you." Bokuto suddenly blurts out, making Yachi yank her head right back to face him but meets only with his neck that was as red as his t-shirt.

"Wh-"

It wasn't like him to be embarrassed, considering how embarrassing he usually was already. He was a walking display of emotions, after all. Maybe he was rushing it. Maybe he was thinking too much. But he liked her  _so much_ , and-

"You know. I know it's only been a few days-" he pauses, his hands reaching for the hem of his shirt to distract his mind from negative thoughts and continues.

"But I really like you."

A small pause lingers between them before Yachi decides to reply. Bokuto gambles with his chances and bravely (but gently) takes Yachi's hands in his as he squeezes his eyes shut, trying to prepare himself for whatever reply that she was deciding on.

"I'm sor-" she starts, only to almost immediately get cut off by Bokuto, who felt his heart drop to the floor.

"You're rejecting me. I know,  _I know._ I'm such a goof and has no sense of... I don't know, wit? And I'm weird. Or at least that's what people say I am." he mutters, his eyes still squeezed shut. "But, like, I hope you'll at least consider-"

Bokuto was about to lose his grip of her hands, but she doesn't let him. Instead, she steps towards him urgently, limiting the distance between them so suddenly that Bokuto finds himself holding his breath. His eyes were open now, and were meeting with Yachi's, whose face was now only a few millimeters from his own. She tightens his hands in hers, her eyes shimmering and cheeks blushing.

It wasn't like her to be this forward, considering how hard it'd been for her to feel comfortable around the Karasuno boys. But just like him, she enjoyed his smile. His hearty laugh. His rough, yet gentle, touches.

Him. She enjoyed him. _So much._

"I-I've also!" she squeaks, her voice barely making a comprehensive octave. "I also!"

 _And --_ that's her limit. She doesn't manage to say the rest, but to her relief, she doesn't need to. Bokuto gathers Yachi in his arms and nuzzles his face in her neck, his heart full of affection and relief over how wrong he was about him being rejected. 

They stay like this for a moment; no words exchanged, both smiling to their ears, until distant, familiar voices approach the two of them, making them both freeze like deers in front of headlights. Without much thought, and with a little help from the adrenaline that filled them both from their moment of mutual affection, Bokuto drops his grip of Yachi's hands to readjust his fingers to intertwine with hers -- and runs away.

It was pretty silly, the way they were running around in circles in an attempt to find a place to hide. But despite their sudden circumstances, Yachi finds herself laughing along with Bokuto's wonderful, hearty laughter.

And for the first time in a very long time, Yachi felt like she was having fun _._

_So much fun._

No stress. No anxiety. No worries.

Thank god she came to this practice camp.


	6. tanaka x yachi -- ordinary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ice cream and pizza featuring tanayachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year and happy belated birthday to our favourite baby bird Asahi!! I was gonna update a chapter dedicated to our favourite cutie-pie, but I was at the airport and had already written more than half of this chapter so here you go!
> 
> Requested by OrChan12.

Tanaka Ryunnosuke and Yachi Hitoka liked to think of themselves as a rather ordinary couple. But ask anyone who knows them, and they'd tell you that Tanaka's eccentric, outgoing personality and Yachi's overthinking, nervous self-made them everything but.

Like any other cheesy high-school couple, the two of them had matching caps, t-shirts and hoodies invading their closets (much to their friends' dismay), and ice creams were shared at the amusement parks with the two of them giggling at how ridiculous they looked with animal-themed hairbands. Morning calls were always made from Yachi to Tanaka at seven AM every morning, with Tanaka's loud, smoochy sounds occasionally earning him a smack in the head from his sister for being too gross far too early in the morning. 

When it came to lunchtime, they'd always order on a routine since their appetites usually matched rather well; with Tanaka eating far too much, and Yachi being stuffed by just a little amount of food. Two-thirds of Yachi's rice would usually be transferred to her boyfriend's bowl, while any peas that Tanaka would find on his plate would be transferred to hers.

During times when Tanaka would have a hard time, Yachi would know exactly how to comfort him. With a big tub of ice-cream and a few pizzas on the go, she'd visit the Tanaka's with her hands struggling with the weight from the amount of food that she'd carry with her to their house, and she'd spend the night in his bed with him on the floor, exchanging loving good nights and kisses to the cheek while both being hyper-aware of his sister watching them closely by the door.

Yachi adored her boyfriend, and absolutely loved that he was intimidating enough to scare away the boys that would approach her whenever other schools were present for a practice match. His presence, despite the ridiculous faces he'd make to look intimidating, made her calm and content, and filled her heart with so much warmth during times when he'd catch her boyfriend pumping his fist at her after scoring a point during a match, or when the first thing he did after a victory was to spin her in the air while showering her face with kisses.

 

When the time of his graduation finally came around, Yachi became lost. 

She'd been very relieved by the fact that Tanaka Ryunnousuke actually managed to earn his high school diploma since, to put it lightly, for him to manage to graduate definitely required some serious brain-drilling (following by a fretting Yachi who'd study third-year school materials in order to help her boyfriend study) on his part. 

It wasn't until the day of the graduation ceremony that Yachi realized that for her boyfriend to graduate would mean that they would no longer be spending as much time together, or get to do the things that she'd become so used to do. The routines and familiarity with him being around were going to be no longer, and for the first time in Yachi's life, she'd felt devastated.

' _It's scary, how another person's presence can affect someone',_ she'd think as she'd count the days to the holidays in the back of her mind while trying to look awake enough for her teacher to leave her alone during homeroom.

But when Tanaka would finally come back home to visit his family and Yachi from Tokyo, where'd he'd earned a scholarship at a sports college, she'd realize over and over again that distance was nothing to them. Not when his smile brightened up all the nights she'd spent on slaving over her studies, and hugs were warmer than the colds she'd catch from working too hard as the manager of the power-house volleyball team that was Karasuno. 

"Welcome back." she'd whisper as she'd fling her arms around Tanaka's neck and comb her fingers through his hair, which he'd attempted on growing out to stop people from teasing Yachi for dating a baldy (by Tsukishima mostly, but still). 

Tanaka wasn't very good with sentimental moments, considering the fact that his whole life had been revolved around adrenaline and excitement that he'd get from winning and losing on the volleyball court. But with the familiar sent of Yachi Hitoka, who smelled like honey and lemon from the shampoo that she never switched out, he'd find comfort in the crane of her neck as he'd whisper back his reply with a voice that only Yachi would get to hear.

"I'm home."

 


	7. daichi x yachi -- caramel mocha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Overpriced coffee-drinks featuring daiyachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Ehg1720. Daichi and Yachi is a pairing that I have never considered, and it might show so I'm sorry!! But it was fun to play with a different type of pacing in terms of writing, so I hope you still enjoyed it. Thanks for requesting!

Caramel mocha with extra whipped cream.

That's what the blonde girl with the star hairband always orders when she's at the café where Daichi Sawamura works at.

The café is very neatly decorated; a lot of wooden furniture and a beige wall that compliments the strong aroma of coffee that the café was filled with at its opening hours. Plants with big leaves hung by the window, giving the café a very cozy aesthetic when luminescent light shone through it. A few miniature figurines of Ghibli characters stood by the counter to greet customers welcome, following by a charming smile from those who worked there. 

Three blocks away from a college is where the café is located, so it's no surprise that a lot of students come by for some caffeine in the morning, or for the free wi-fi that they offer. Charging sockets are available for those who plan to stay to do some work, and the fact that the café is also open twenty-four seven makes it rather convenient for late crammers who needed a change of scenery during their finals. 

Being quite the popular spot to get a cup of coffee, every single day was filled with customers of all shapes and sizes who ordered drinks from a variety of low to high prices, making it quite the challenge for Daichi to recognize returning customers. 

So what made  _her_ catch his eye? 

It was quite simple, really. All you needed to do was to, well, have a lookat her and you'd understand why she stands out. Being one to usually visit the café during the later hours when it wasn't as packed with people, Daichi assumed that she was a college student by the amount books and reference materials that she'd usually bring with her. It was funny, how the café would sometimes be filled with couples while her companion would be her big pile of books and stacks of files that were bigger than her face.

Her presence was always quite loud even though she herself was almost always as quiet as a mouse. Daichi wouldn't be able to count all the times that he'd helped her up from tripping over thin air or dropping her stationery from her table. She was a clumsy one, but nevertheless, seemed very quick to her feet to apologize and correct whatever mistake she'd made.

On rainy days, the blonde girl would order something less sweet, like a cappuccino with an extra shot. Having had noticed that she'd always end up putting another pack of sugar in the cup of coffee that she'd ordered with no sugar, Daichi gradually started to add sweetener to her cup, and soon she'd be back ordering a regular cup of cappuccino.

 He admired how focused she always was with whatever work that she'd brought with her. It was nice to see how passionate she seemed to be about her work, considering how many sighing students he was surrounded by every day. The frown on her face never seemed to last, and the occasional smiles that he'd catch playing at her lips would earn him jabs to his sides by his co-worker from staring too much. 

She seemed so precious and endearing, and just overall a very pleasant person to be around. If Daichi had been anything like his smooth-talking co-worker Kuroo Tetsurou, he probably would've approached her a long time ago. But he wasn't. Daichi was good at holding conversations with his customers, yes, but when it came to flirting, it just never quite turned out the way he wanted it to. Asking for advice from his co-workers only earned him shit-eating grins and quite some teasing, so he usually avoided to do that, too, leaving him no options but to simply admire the blonde girl, whose face was occasionally covered in paint and shirt occasionally worn inside-out, from a distance that was safe enough for her to not notice him staring.

And so, as winter bled into spring, he'd simply been watching her with curious eyes while being a part of the blonde girl's background noise during her study sessions at the café; making coffee, clinking glasses and washing dishes.

The first day of spring came around, which complimented the café's cozy vibe with the sound of birds chirping and flowers blooming. Daichi was bringing out the out-doors furniture through the front door of the café when he'd seen her approaching the café at a time that she'd usually come by. Knowing that Kuroo would only know to tease her again, he quickly dropped the braided furniture he'd been meaning to place outside and ran to the counter in hopes of taking her order.

Black coffee was what she'd ordered, making him raise a curious eyebrow at her.

"Black coffee?" he heard himself question her, earning him a sight of her flushed cheeks.

"Yes please." 

Black coffee, or Americano if you wanted to be posh, was quite a common order amongst the customers at the café. But the blonde girl had, ever since visiting the café, been ordering sweet drinks, making Daichi curious as to what made her want to try such a bitter drink that seemed to differ so much from what she usually ordered.

And he was right to think that she probably wasn't going to like it very much. Seeing the wincing expression upon putting the cup to her lips, Daichi approaches her for the very first time with an actual (and very convenient) excuse.

"Would you like some sugar with that?" he says, putting down two packets of brown sugar to her cup. "You seem to usually enjoy sweeter drinks, so I figured you probably would enjoy your Americano better with some sugar," he says to her with a smile that he used in an attempt to mask his bubbling nerves that grew at his chest.

"You've noticed?" she asks then, making Daichi feel his face heat and a pair of eyes staring at the back of his neck (most likely Kuroo who was leaning on the table-top with his usual shit-eating smirk).

"U-uhm, yeah," Daichi replies her with a sheepish grin while scratching the back of his neck, "caramel mocha with extra whipped cream, right?"

Putting her hands to hide her burning cheeks, the flustered blonde girl starts to stumble over her words and talk far too fast for her mind to catch up. "W-well, I thought that I might as well try it since I always see you drinking black coffee during lectures, and-"

"Wait, you've seen me around school?"

The blonde girl blinks. "We go to the same college." she says a little too quickly, "and we're taking the same class this year."

She says the last sentence a bit quieter, making Daichi face-palm himself for being so dumb. Being one to usually sit at the very front in class, he wasn't usually very observant of the classmates that would behind him.

Which, and what Kuroo would agree with, would be a huge and pathetic understatement.

With a smile reaching his lips and heart feeling warm, Daichi takes her cup and drinks up the coffee in one gulp, as if preparing his heart for what he was about to do.

"Would you like to have a caramel mocha instead?"

Daichi pauses a bit, and continues.

"With me?"

In the background of the blushing duo, Kuroo is seen pumping a single fist to the air at his friend for  _finally_  being able to ask out the petite blonde after almost five months.

 

 


	8. ushijima x yachi -- mr. japan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Subtle blushing featuring ushiyachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by OrChan12! This is a bit of a short piece but I've been wanting to attempt on different writing styles and it's been fun! Also Ushijima would totally be the ultimate softy for Yachi and no one will convince me otherwise.

Yachi Hitoka's boyfriend is a quirky one.

Every morning at 4:30 AM, he wakes up and goes for a jog around the block no matter how the weather looks outside. When he's back home, he takes a cold shower and reads the morning newspaper (including the ads) with a cup of black coffee that he's meticulously calculated to be a specific temperature in order to not burn his tongue.

When the clock strikes seven, he reaches for his phone to dial his girlfriend's phone number without needing to look it up, and greets her good morning. This is usually her morning call, where he reminds her that he's about to pick her up by her house with a carton of milk to help her grow (because calcium) and a sandwich that changes ingredients according to a schedule that he's written up himself because he knows that his girlfriend usually skimps out on breakfast considering how much of a hard time she has to wake up.

A second call to his girlfriend would sometimes be needed if he'd have a gut feeling that the first call wasn't enough.

If his phone beeped for his attention of a new update, he'd read through the terms and conditions (all of it) before agreeing and accepting anything, as he was very aware of scams and pranks because of his eccentric friend Tendou, who would quite ~~frequently~~ occasionally send him prank-messages and prank calls that his family members or girlfriend has been abducted.

Being the ace of a powerhouse volleyball team, you'd think he'd be smarter than to fall for such ridicule. 

But his girlfriend is involved, so no doubt is spared. He takes stuff like that  _very_ seriously. 

The story of how the two of them got together is a funny one. Upon having Yachi confessing her feelings to the turd of a block-head, whom responded with a simple "thank you" as he had assumed that she was a fan of him playing volleyball, it took quite some time until he realized that, yes, she was a fan of him because of volleyball, but no, it wasn't because of volleyball that had made her like him.

It was all the times he'd offered a helping hand for her in the library, or casually picked her up when she couldn't reach for the blackboard in high school that had made her an utterly blushing mess that made her become absolutely winded by his subtle caring gestures.

Yachi loves how she's the only one who gets to see his (ever so subtly) blushing face when he agrees on being her model for the day to help her practice for her upcoming sketching exams. Or the way he'd flat out state the obvious when her face and hands were covered in paint, but never as a condescending move but rather, because he just casually helps her wipe it off. She loves how he's always helping her tie her hair back, despite struggling with finding the right position because of his enormous height compared to Yachi's, and how he always seem to carry around band-aids with him wherever he went because he just knows that his girlfriend is prone to accidents.

Whenever they walk together, she'd find him slowing his gigantic steps to match her own pace. Or when they were out shopping, he'd always offer her the outmost mindful opinion of things that she asks him about ("that jacket has properly engulfed you", "that bag has no room for the wallet I bought for your birthday"). She appreciates it, though, since the things he points out would almost never be wrong.

Although Ushijima was not one to take part in consumerism, he'd occasionally buy different hairbands that Yachi liked to wear solely for the purpose of getting to see the beaming smile that would reach her lips.

A smile that he knew was only for him.

When Yachi and Ushijima are out grocery-shopping, it usually takes  _hours_  to purchase a full cart. Yachi dreads the aisle that sells pre-made food since Ushijima never fails to read every, single, ingredient including the nutrition labels at the back. But it's all good though since he  _does,_ after all, have a reason for being mindful of what he's putting in his body. And he's mindful of what his girlfriend is putting in his body, too, considering all the supplements that he keeps buying for her, even opting to buy gummy bear vitamins because Yachi can't swallow pills.

Sometimes when the two of them would spend time together after school, Ushijima would try to draw when he's got nothing to do besides a studying Yachi. This usually resulted in a lot of stick figures that are attempted to look like actual, existing beings which, mind you, he's put a lot of effort in so don't you  _dare_ say anything because Yachi might actually slap you.

Piggy-back rides with Ushijima were truly an experience. Yachi feels bad for anyone who hasn't gotten to experience such a delight (which, of course, is ironic because how  _could_ you get a piggyback ride from Ushijima Wakatoshi if you weren't anything  _but_ his girlfriend?), since for once in her life Yachi actually gets to  _be tall._ And not just ordinary tall.  _Almost two meters-kind of tall._

Ushijima's height has always been convenient in that aspect, but also inconvenient, of course, considering all the times Ushijima had to bend down to her in order for Yachi to actually be able to plant a kiss to his cheek (while she'd simultaneously struggle with keeping her balance at her toes). Although granted, Ushijima doesn't mind bending down to kiss his girlfriend, who in his eyes is a ray of sunshine that could do no one harm. His neck would hurt a little bit, is all.

He's a quirky one, that _Mr. Japan_. But that's why she loves him.


	9. bokuto x yachi/akaashi x yachi -- me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions without expecting answers featuring bokuyachi/akayachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a fluff chapter this time? Wat? How to register? Haha oops. I've been writing so much fluff for this series that I figured I'd try something new (although granted, I've said so in the previous two chapters too and they might've not strayed too far away from what I usually write but oh wells).
> 
> Requested by Azurame_Neve! Sorry for not including much of Akaashi here -- I'll return with an akayachi chapter for you some other time to compensate my self-indulgence!! You requested for Bokuto/Yachi/Akaashi, which gave me a plot bunny of all the what-ifs to Bokuto's character so I couldn't resist huhu.
> 
> Also a side-note: I'll stop including usernames of requests here from now on. It doesn't feel quite right to say that someone has requested for ALL of the contents that I've written in a chapter when they've only requested for a pairing -- I feel like some of these chapters might not have been up to your (requesters) expectations because the way I work is very self-indulgent (oops) so it's probably better if I just take up on suggested pairings that you guys leave in the comments sections without doing so instead. 
> 
> Anyways sorry for this long rant but thank you (!!!) so much for all the kudos and lovely comments. I can't believe that some of you are so nice to constantly check in on this!!

Yachi Hitoka did not speak up much when it came to her opinions. Being one to always tip-toe around other people’s voices, it was almost as if she was constantly trying to find a reason to escape every confrontational situation possible. Almost as if she was always letting herself blend in the background, giving the people around her the center of attention to be the main characters of their lives.

Much like her personality, she was very small in frame as her height did not even come close to reaching the corners of the classroom blackboard. Her blonde, nest of hair was usually jumping up and down during errands that she’d run around doing, and her face would quite often wear a constantly changing expression due to her mind always going a hundred miles an hour.

Bokuto Koutaro, however, was a completely different story. He thrived on being the center of attention. He was the ace and captain of the Furukodani volleyball team, after all, so what else could he be but the best? All things great were meant to happen to him and for him to have, and nothing else could come in his way (except for himself, of course, but that would be a story for another time) in becoming just that.

The fact that Yachi would catch his attention was no surprise to anybody, considering his very apparent blushing face (which amusingly earned him quite a lot of teasing from the Furukodani manager) every time he’d see Yachi Hitoka in the bleachers, watching their games such intense focus that one would think she’d fall off the bleachers by how close she’d be to the edge.

Bokuto doesn’t quite recall when the first time he’d seen Yachi, but he most definitely recalls the first time he got to talk to her. Her small, trembling voice was louder than what she seemed to be comfortable with, and the shaking fists at her sides made him realize how nervous she was in front of him. But why was she nervous? He wasn’t about to eat her up, even if it might’ve looked like it to the ones around them considering their contrast in both height and size.

He later realizes (with a little help from Akaashi) that it’s because he was so close to her that had set off the deep pink in her cheeks. With his body lowered to meet her face to face, they were only inches away from each other, and he was obviously invading her bursting comfort zone.

“But I was curious!” he’d then protested, his voice sounding almost an octave higher than usual because of the face that Akaashi was giving him. She was being introduced as their new manager-in-training, after all, so of course, he’d be paying some extra attention to her, right?

Bokuto didn’t exactly have a type when it came to girls that he liked, but the fact that she was able to let out such a loud voice from such a small body had definitely piqued his interest—and it wasn’t only because she was to become their new manager, he’d later realize.

The genuine nerves that was apparent in her voice when she’d squeakily cheer for the team during their practice games, or the way her ponytail bobbed on the side of her head every time she’d run up to the team to give them dry towels and water bottles soon made his heart squeeze a little too tight and fingers tingle just enough to drive his spikes even harder through the air. It was almost as if she had a halo above her head, the way her smile would brighten the gym after ten lapses of being punished.

  
Yachi blended quite well with the Furukodani volleyball team. Despite the fact that she seemed quite timid, she was nonetheless a very hard worker and definitely helped with lifting the spirits of the team during times when training just didn’t go as well and Bokuto’s mood-swings would start to appear.

To everyone’s surprise, though, Yachi became quite an expert at knowing all the tips and tricks at pulling Bokuto out of his ruts. Before she was a part of the team, it would usually require a team effort to discard what they would call “Emo-Bo”. But with Yachi being around, it was as if all that agonizing team effort was wasted, as it only required Yachi to pat his head a few times (while he was sitting, of course) or occasionally check in at his classroom despite him being a third-year to make his mood instantaneously much better. Or she could just, you know, call out to him during a match and he’d go back to being a little less annoying (with perhaps an addition of with his heart-eyes showing).

Around the time Yachi finally became the official manager of the team, Bokuto had made up his mind to set up the perfect plan to confess his feelings to her. He was going to order some doves from the local zoo, buy a hundred roses from the floral shop near his house, and get down to his knee behind the gym to ask her to be his girlfriend. And knowing that Akaashi would give him the look again if he’d tell him his fail-proof plan (following by a lot of nagging about overdoing it, of course), Bokuto used all of his might to not tell the Furukodani setter about what he had in mind.

But when Bokuto’s catches Yachi’s flustered, blushing face in Akaashi’s chest, who’s hands are wrapped around her tiny waist and was giving the warmest smile that Bokuto had ever seen Akaashi give anyone, Bokuto suddenly has an epiphany.

The doves might have been a bad idea, after all.

  
After that incident, Bokuto slowly notices all the small details that had gone over his head from being too clouded of affection for the very girl that had been holding his friend’s hand during practice breaks and laughing her wonderfully sounding laugh when Akaashi whispers in her ear and that she was putting her arms around her when she’d sit on the back of his bicycle and suddenly— Bokuto feels stupid.

Stupid for not have seen all the signs that were so painfully in front of him. Stupid that he didn’t consider if she had ever liked him, and stupid for not having had talked to Akaashi about his newfound affection toward the sunshine of a human.

Bokuto had assumed so many things. He’d assumed that people just knew what was going on in his head; just like the way he’d assumed that people just knew that he liked Yachi Hitoka with her deep, passionate eyes, or ceaseless kindness and breathtaking smile.

He’d just assumed; just like he’d assumed that Akaashi Keiji knew.

But he didn’t know. Akaashi liked the ray of sunshine that he’d come to like, and she had liked him back. And to be honest, he wanted to be happy for them. With Yachi being the sweet girl that she was; with all the times he’d catch her lending her umbrella to a stray cat on his way home and the cookies she’d make for the team on valentine’s day to not having anyone feeling left out, there was no doubt in his mind that he was a good girl for Akaashi, whom he didn’t doubt would be a great guy for her either. Akaashi was tactful, thoughtful, and a lot of things that Bokuto realizes that he wasn’t, and the two of them were so painfully good for each other that it almost becomes a little hard for him to breathe every time he sees them together.

Exchanging food from their lunch-boxes, picking off the dust from each other’s uniforms, covering each other’s ears in the biting winter cold; such things were things that he’d been wanting to do for her, or with her. It should’ve been him next to her. It should’ve been him giving her the biggest of hugs, or smooching noises during calls of good night.

But betraying Akaashi was the last thing that he would do, and so for the first time in his life, Bokuto Koutaro bottles up his immense affection for the beautiful existence that was Yachi Hitoka and tries to be the way he’d always been with girls that didn’t stop his heartbeat with just a smile.

One month of holding in his feelings was agonizing for Bokuto. Being someone who had always been somewhat of a display of emotions, it was almost as if he was suffocating from the lack of showing their Furukodani manager the love that he had for her. Another month goes by, and he’d expected things to be a little lighter to his heart. But as three months pass, and another three, he realizes that the tinge of heartache he feels every time he witnesses his best friend lovingly gazing at his girlfriend over lunch, or how Yachi would ever-so-subtly linger her touch when giving Akaashi his water-bottle, was probably never going to fade away.

Never— if not he did something about it.

And so, he did.

In the presence of her heart-wrenching smile that was all kinds of wonderful and made his chest burst and head grow dizzy, Bokuto feels his bottled-up emotions slowly leaking out, almost like a shaken-up soda about to explode.

And although Bokuto wasn’t always the best at expressing the way he felt in words, he finds himself knowing exactly what to ask the girl who was so warmly smiling up to him.

“Can’t,” he hears himself whisper as his chest squeezes in time with his fist clenching his shirt over his chest, “it be me?”

 

 

 


	10. kuroo x yachi -- GPS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Human GPS featuring kurooyachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Lev. Also, did I mention I love Lev? Man, I love him so much.
> 
> Also, we've officially passed a thousand views! Thanks and kisses to all the kudos, comments and for reading this series. x

"I've called you so many times about this, I'm so sorry." Yachi frets in her phone while gripping her small purse that keeps swinging back and forth from her frantic movements. The crowd that she’s found herself in is overwhelmingly large –the only similarly comparable crowd that she’s found herself in before were crowds of elders that she usually had to fight through during discounted sales at the grocery store. She’s always used her small size to her own advantage by crawling under the heights of people in those situations, but considering the fact that she’s supposed to actually look _above_ people to find her messy-haired boyfriend, she’s not having much luck with it. It's not often that Yachi's out of Miyagi, after all, but when she is, it comes to no one’s surprise that she’d become lost.

For the third time today, Yachi is calling Kuroo for directions. She’s called him once before going boarding the train, another time before getting off it, and has called him now when she's somehow found herself having had drifted about a kilometer away from the train station.

The cheeky boy on the other line only chuckles at his girlfriend for being a gigantic blushing mess, as he'd already expected for this much to happen. Tokyo was unsurprisingly confusing for people that weren’t from here; with all the tall buildings and small kiosks and the overwhelming amount of people filling the streets at all times is bound to make someone who's used to mountains and blue skies confused. And for someone like Yachi, no less, Tokyo probably seemed like a giant zoo filled with people and things that were much bigger than herself. Kuroo pictures his little ball of sunshine as Alice in the Wonderland, except a much more confused one whose hair is probably sticking in every direction from running too much.

“Calm down, kitten,” Kuroo assures her while swinging his keys on his finger as he takes large steps towards wherever Yachi had ended up. _Calm down, I tell her,_ he thinks then as he laughs at himself. How ironic it was for him to tell her to calm down when he couldn’t even calm down himself.

Most people would call Kuroo Tetsurou a chill guy; someone who always keeps his cool and who always has the right things to say. But when it comes to Yachi, he just can’t seem to keep his heart calm as he’d more often than not find himself being an utterly nonsensical and hopeless dork—something that he’s often teased about by his teammates from his high school volleyball team. The way he’s practically skipping his way towards Yachi right now would be a prime example of how contrasting he can be to his usual, very kept-together self. Not that he’s aware of it, though, considering the fact that at this very moment, Kuroo Tetsurou’s brain was filled with thoughts of Yachi, Yachi, and Yachi only.

“I thought there was only one Tokyo tower in Tokyo,” Yachi mutters confusedly as she turns her head from one electric tower to another.

“You hang around Hinata far too much,” Kuroo says with a frown as he recalls having had heard something similar from the orange-haired boy. “Also, turn left.” He adds when he finally spots the blonde, bouncing ponytail amongst the crowd of people in front of him.

“Left?” Yachi says as she scratches her head while wondering how _anyone_ is able to navigate themselves around Tokyo.

“Go straight ahead.” Kuroo continues but frowns when he watches Yachi turn right. “Yacchan,” he warns her, “ _straight_. Or you’ll walk into-“

Into a pole, which is exactly what she does. Rubbing her nose from the hit, Yachi groans at her inability to navigate her own legs. “Sorry, I need to learn to connect my brain to my nerves.” She sighs.

“That’s alright. I’ll just have to be your GPS from now on.” Kuroo says with a smirk as a sudden brilliant idea crosses his mind. Sneakily hiding from corner to corner, Kuroo lowers himself to his knees and slowly sneaks his way to where Yachi’s standing.

Covering her eyes with his gigantic palms when he’s finally right behind her, Kuroo can’t help but let his excitement slip in his voice. “Hey there baby.” He greets her with a grin, which paints Yachi’s cheek a deep shade of red. “K-Kuroo-kun!” she squeals, “I told you not to call me cheesy nicknames like that in public.” She mutters, but a smile slowly creeps to her lips as she takes Kuroo’s hand in hers and turns around to face him. To her surprise, Kuroo’s wearing his hair slicked back, something she thought she’d never see her boyfriend in.

“I’ll even call you buttercups if I want to,” Kuroo says with a laugh and leads his girlfriend through the crowds towards a restaurant at the opposite street.

The cold air and slight snowfall are making it feel like Kuroo’s face was falling off, but the warmth of Yachi’s small hand assures him that he could even be in Antarctica and he’d probably still be okay. It’s been almost three months since the last time he’s seen his girlfriend, and no words were enough to describe how excited he was to see his little ball of sunshine. She was so pretty, with her hair curled and lips painted with some light lip gloss. Heck—she could even wear a potato sack over her head and she’d still look pretty in his eyes. _She_ was the reason why she was pretty, after all. The way she laughs, the way she rolls her eyes at his cheesy pick-up lines every time he calls her, the way she worries over the smallest things. The essence of her was what made her so wonderful, and if he wasn’t already, Kuroo had become utterly head over heels for the small blonde in front of him.

“I like your hair.” Kuroo suddenly hears Yachi complimenting him, which earns her his smirk and a wink.

“Really? Should I gel my hair every day for you then, baby?”

“No,” Yachi replies with a laugh as she reaches a hand to touch his hair (which Kuroo helps her with by bending down). “I like your usual hair, too,” Yachi says with a laugh. “But for the record, I’d still like you even if you went bald.”

“You better say that again later while I record it, ‘cause no take backs.” Kuroo chuckles and gives her hand a squeeze.

It’s been a tough three months without her being there with him for morning cuddles or late-night snuggles, but with her daily updating him on Facetime about her life and occasional texts makes it slightly easier.

But only slightly, because nothing beats the feeling of his heart beating out of chest when Kuroo gets to put Yachi’s hand in his pocket to shield her from the winter cold, and she flashes her loving smile back at him as thanks.

If Kuroo could so choose, he’d have Yachi all for himself for the rest of her stay here in Tokyo. But it was the Nekoma volleyball team’s one-year anniversary since they all graduated high school, and with Kuroo being the ex-captain of it and all, he’d surely get hit if he wasn’t there for it.

Kuroo’s phone buzzes to remind him that they were late (probably a text from Kenma), and Yachi picks up the clue to walk a bit faster. Kuroo’s used to slow his steps down because of his leg length contrasting so much from Yachi’s, and to watch Yachi trying to pick up her pace by running the distance that Kuroo takes as a step makes him almost forget to breathe a little. _How dare she be so cute?_

“Hey,” he assures her, like he always does when she’s starting to panic over things, “don’t worry about the boys. We’re there, anyway.” He says as he gives her hand a squeeze, his other hand pointing to the ramen restaurant in front of there. “See?”

Through the window, Yachi spots the Nekoma team all bundled up at a long table. Inouka, who’s sitting near the entrance door of the restaurant, looks up from the menu waves over at the two of them with a cheerful smile.

“Let’s go in.” Kuroo chirps and plants a kiss to Yachi’s hand before walking into the ramen restaurant that had become completely overtaken by a bunch of rowdy teenage boys.

\---

The heat in the restaurant leaves a slight tingling feeling on Yachi’s face, and the warm greeting she gets from the Nekoma team makes her heart do the same. She’s met them all so many times before, and there hasn’t been a single time where they hadn’t made her laugh. The Nekoma team knew volleyball like the back of their hand, which has led for a lot of people to assume that they’d have the same, cool demeanor off the volleyball court as they had on it.

“Hey- Lev! What the hell are you doing?!” Yaku scolds a very focused Lev, who’s trying to balance the restaurant menu on his nose.

Laughing, Yachi sits down together with Kuroo as she watches the endless back and forth between the unlikely duo. Cool demeanor, where? They were all so uniquely quirky, and in all the right ways.

“You’ll drop it-“

“Don’t-“

“LEV-“

A crash follows a continuous string of yelling noises, resulting in a shocked Kuroo whose pants were now wet from coke.

“Oops.” Lev yelps a little too loudly, earning a smack on the head from Yaku.

“Cokuroo.” Kenma whispers to Yachi with a small nudge, who giggles at the scene before her. It’s not often that one gets to witness Kenma joking, and Yachi feels honored to have become blessed by the presence of his humor. How nice it was, she thought, for him to think of her as a friend. Kenma was, after all, not exactly the easiest person to approach –so for her to have become so close to him was, as Kuroo had called it, a miracle.

“Go and clean yourself up,” Kai tells their Nekoma captain, who gives Lev a stale grin and two fingers which he points from his eyes to Lev’s.

“Don’t you dare lay your dirty hands on Yacchan.”

“You’re going to watch him from the bathroom?” Shibayama asks with a cocked eyebrow.

“Don’t.” Yaku sighs as the table watches Kuroo almost tripping over the air from trying to look intimidating.

When Kuroo’s out of their sight, Lev immediately takes a seat next to Yachi to go back to his mischief self. “Let me tell you a secret, Yacchan,” Lev whispers to her, which earns him a slap to his head from Yaku. “Don’t call her that. Kuroo will rip your face.”

Ignoring Yaku, Lev continues (which slightly worries Yachi, since it almost seemed like Lev had gotten used to being hit by his shorter friend), “Kuroo keeps your Karasuno jacket under his pillow when he sleeps.”  

“W-wha-“ is all Yachi can utter before Lev continues.

“I bet you probably expected him to be this sexy hunk who walks around half-naked all the time-“

“Well, he’s creepy for wanting to smell you in his sleep.” Kenma comments, which earns him a round of nodding heads around the table.

“Who would’ve thought that he’s an idiot for his girlfriend?” Inouka says with a chuckle, “Just wait and see, try saying that you don’t want to eat here and watch him immediately leave here with you.”

A quick gesture from Yaku makes them all realize that Kuroo was getting back from his trip from the washroom, and Lev immediately shushes everyone to be quiet.

“How ironic for you to shut us up when you’re the one who brought it up in the first place,” Kenma mutters.

“You people better not have talked smack about me,” Kuroo warns as he sits down. “I’ll give you wedgies if you did.”

“Hey Kuroo, Yachi says she doesn’t like ramen and we’re at a ramen place. What should we do?” Kenma then asks Kuroo while staring at his phone, which Kuroo immediately stands up again over.

“Then what are we doing here? Let’s leave!”

\---

When their reunion finally ends, Yachi can’t help but feel giddy over her newfound information from his friends. He was such an endearing dork. Despite looking like every girl’s dreamy bad boy, he was almost everything but exactly that when it came to who he was as a person; he loved biology, his handwriting was neat and pretty, and he cooked the most delicious pasta.

Somehow, the fact that he’d sleep with her jacket when they were apart didn’t quite surprise her as much as she thought it would.

Almost skipping at every step she’s taking, Kuroo curiously cocks an eyebrow at his happy, blushing girlfriend. “What made you in such a happy mood?”

Giggling, Yachi’s about to answer him, but stops when he answers her for him. “Oh, I know. It’s my glorious presence that’s blessing you with endorphins, isn’t it?” Kuroo says with a smirk, making her roll her eyes.

But instead of giving him a slap to the shoulder like she usually would, she squeezes her grip of Kuroo’s hand and drags him lower to bring her lips to his cheek.

“Maybe.” She then replies him with a smile—a smile that ships Kuroo’s soul to space and not quite back.

 

 

 

 


	11. yamaguchi x yachi -- knight in training (a)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A medival au featuring yamayachi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy valentine's day peeps! I'd originally wanted to make this a bit longer instead of leaving a cliffhanger and the ever-so-subtle hints of plot in this (what?!), but figured what the hell. It's my first time on attempting a medival!au so I do hope it turned out alright. :') As always, thanks for all the kudos and comments and for reading! All thoughts are appreciated, so I do hope you share them in the comments down below!

Yamaguchi Tadashi was not the brightest knight among his peers. Although he’d managed to become a knight-in-training, he could still not amount to the level that his fellow knights were on. Some had the strength enough to lift a hundred horses, it seemed, while others had the wit to outsmart evil. He, on the other hand, felt like he had none of such, and didn’t feel like he had anything to level to such expectations. He had a rather lanky build (much to his own dismay), and did not confront conflict as much as what an average knight assumingly would. How foolish it was of him for wanting to become a knight when he didn’t feel like he had the guts to confront intimidation and danger, he’d often think to himself every time he felt he was lagging behind his fellow knights, who would go on lengths to impress the King in attempts to be promoted to become an official knight—or perhaps even better _, one of the princesses' knight_.  
  


Yamaguchi was the type of knight whose cover on his helmet would always randomly close on his face when talking to someone, or whose sword would drop with a loud  _bang_ to the ground during the King’s speech. Long story short—he was a clumsy one, to say the least, and it was hard to see value in a clumsy knight like himself.  
  


But after a year in on his training, Yamaguchi had slowly but steadily improved in both wit and strength. He was now expected to be sent to fight their enemies or to become the shield to the King’s daughters anytime soon, and although he was still not an extraordinary knight and didn’t shine through his mishaps whenever they happened, Yamaguchi was still able to stick around and do what he'd always tried to do—his best.  
  


And his best he was able to do thanks to his newfound hide-out that he'd found behind the castle. It was a place that he'd visit after a hard day of training, and was often also visited by the local stray cats that had managed to sneak into royal territory. It was nice, to spend time with people who didn’t scream or roar every reply to his questions. It was nice to have found a place where he could be alone with his thoughts, even if they weren’t always very positive. The key was to find a balance, and the little spot under the big oak tree behind the castle had become just that. His balance.  
  


Having had another day of tough training, Yamaguchi took heavy steps towards his secret hide-out to calm his nerves. The leaves from the oak trees along his path followed the wind with its direction, resulting in calm, rustling sounds. It was that awkward hour between noon and evening, which painted a shade of different colours in the sky.  
  


Expecting to see the usual members of his little secret club (a fat, ginger cat and a black kitten), Yamaguchi was quite surprised to find someone he’d never met before sitting at the same spot he usually sits at.  
  


Yachi Hitoka; a petite girl who was the youngest amongst the princesses within the royal family. He’d seen her before whenever he’d be sent to patrol around the castle. Unlike her chatty sisters, who would always giggle upon seeing the knights near them, Yachi Hitoka was always hiding behind one of them or distracted from their conversation by the animals around her.  
  


Not knowing what he was supposed to do, Yamaguchi immediately hides behind a tree. Being a part of the royal family, Yachi was not supposed to be out of the castle, or sit on the grass with a black kitten on her lap for that matter. Although Yachi did not bear the burden of being the oldest of her sisters, she was still very restricted from the outside world. For her to have a rebellious side and to have had actually dared to sneak out to be with a small kitten was, _surprising,_ to say the least. She, after all, seemed to be the timidest amongst her sisters.  
  


But maybe it was because of just that, Yamaguchi realizes, that had made her rebel against her restrictions to find a moment of peace and quiet from the hectic life that she had.  
  


A little bit like himself.

  
Yamaguchi’s crouching position hurts his back, but even back-pain couldn’t stop him from staring at the little blonde who was so lovingly looking at the kitten that Yamaguchi had once thought only had eyes for him.

  
Princess Hitoka had always been rumored to be a little bit on the odd side; the way she'd nervously greet people regardless of their social status made her quite puzzling for ones around her. Numerous accounts have witnessed her being scolded at by her sisters quite often for bowing down to lowly servants and butlers and chefs, and she's even been seen talking to little birds on mornings of sunshine and summer winds.

  
But despite all of that, she was no less of a princess. If anything, Yamaguchi thought that it only made her seem even more endearing. 

  
Without noticing that he’d been moving forward by each minute, Yamaguchi accidentally steps on a leaf and startles the small girl in front of him, who immediately hides behind a leaf of her own.

  
“S-Sorry Princess H-Hitoka! I didn’t mean to-“ Yamaguchi starts to fret as he quickly puts on his helmet on to hide under. It was embarrassing, to say the least, to have been secretly watching a member of the royal family behind a tree. But embarrassing wasn’t enough to cover the utter fear that then dawns upon Yamaguchi when he suddenly realizes how much in trouble he was in to have been to what must've looked like he was stalking the princess.

  
But instead of an immediate declaration of his head being cut off, Yamaguchi was surprised to find the small blonde blushing while quickly waving her hands in front of his face. She’d stood up now, and was standing dangerously close to him. Royalty wasn’t supposed to be so near common folk— _especially_ someone like him, who so often attracted troubleand was just a mere knight-in-training.

  
“—Sir?” is the word that Yamaguchi suddenly hears to snap him out of his train of last goodbyes to his loved ones in his head. Looking through his metal helmet, he can't help but notice how incredibly close the princess was to him. With her blonde, fluffy hair reaching shoulder-length and pink, chiffon dress reaching just past her ankles, Yamaguchi couldn’t help but be completely blown away by how beautiful she looked.

  
How weird, he thought, how he’d never noticed her beauty before.

  
Having had noticed that Yamaguchi was confused, Yachi couldn’t help but smile at the way he seemed so embarrassed. Knights, in her eyes, had always been very scary-looking. Unlike her sisters, who were absolutely head over heels for how cool they looked in their shining armors, to Yachi they just looked dangerous. And intimidating.

  
But the knight in front of her was none of that.

  
Although he wore the exact same armor like the ones that she'd seen patrolling around the castle, she couldn't help but notice that he seemed much more gentle. 

  
He seemed... alright.

  
Non-threatening, at least.

  
  
“Don’t you worry, sir. I’m not going to threaten you or anything.” Yachi assures Yamaguchi, who finally stops moving from his frantic movements of not knowing what to do.

  
Blinking and becoming even more confused by the little blonde in front of her, Yamaguchi decides to push his helmet cover up to meet her eyes. “Y-you’re not?”

  
“No,” she replies him with a small laugh, and bows to greet him for the very first time. “I-I’m Yachi Hitoka by the way!”

  
Immediately falling to his knee to bow back to the princess, Yamaguchi reaches out his right hand to do the same. “I’m Y-Yamaguchi Tadashi! A knight in training! I’m terribly sorry to have inconvenienced you-“

  
“D-don’t be sorry! You did nothing wrong."

  
A pause of thought passes them in what felt like agonizing minutes, until Yachi speaks again before Yamaguchi registers what he felt like he needed to say next.

  
"In fact—would you care to join me, perhaps?”  
  


\---  
  
  


Everything from the stars in the sky to the creatures on the ground, Yachi Hitoka seemed to know about it all. Their coincidental meet-ups behind the castle at the oak tree soon became rendezvous that they would have almost weekly. Her laugh that rung in his ears and the gentle touches she’d give his hair when assuring him that he’d be a great knight one day made him realize, that perhaps he was able to be a knight in training because he _actually_ had the talent to become one. 

He wasn’t there to be compared with others, after all.

He was there because he had a goal.

  
A goal to become useful to someone; _to be able to protect, and to assure._

  
  
 ---  
  
  


And that goal he was reminded of when he witnesses his endearing princess being kidnapped in front of his very eyes.  
  


But much to the kidnapper’s surprise, Yamaguchi was very fast to take Yachi away from his arms, and had tackled him to the ground in a matter of seconds—something that the man under the mask had not been expecting of him. A lapse of judgment it was on his part, considering how much Yamaguchi had improved throughout the months that he’d met his muse.  
  


Although Yamaguchi hadn't known Yachi for very long, he couldn't help but feel like he'd met her before. Everything from the jokes that she made to the way her blonde hair follows the wind had become so increasingly familiar to him, that Yachi Hitoka had become his source of familiar comfort; almost like his constant reminder of what his core purpose was to become a knight.   
  


And for someone to be attempting to hurt her was, quite frankly,  _enraging_ to him. Anger that he never thought he had in him surprised even himself.  
  


“Don’t you dare touch the princess!” Yamaguchi roars as he tugs at the kidnapper’s clothes, and just when he’s about to rip the mask off the kidnapper’s face, Yamaguchi suddenly realizes something.

 

 

“T-Tsukki?!”

 

 


	12. oikawa x yachi -- listen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a 5+1 prompt featuring oiyachi as childhood friends.
> 
> The five times that Yachi did not hear, and the one time that she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I based this one-shot on my ongoing work, [Mellifluous](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16567220/chapters/38818850), which centers around Yachi and Oikawa being childhood friends. Yes, yes, it's an overused prompt, but man, I have such a soft spot for such stories. Anyways, I hope you'll this chapter! I tried something new, and hopefully it's coherent enough to make sense. I listened to a lot of Billie Eilish while writing this, which is why I am now emo. Please do leave feedback if you so feel inclined (I always love to read your comments u . u), and thank you so much for reading!

 i.  _dreams_

The first time he'd said it was when she was asleep. Being the coward that he was, he'd wanted to be the one to say it first to her before anyone else—but with her not noticing, and without pressure.

Her long eyelashes brushed against her flushed cheeks; an image that almost makes Oikawa question if he was allowed to breathe. The summer breeze that traveled through the open window of the living room was cold, but the words that had just escaped his lips left his tongue burning from the sheer amount of emotions that he felt all at the very same time. Immediate regret, to relief, to becoming scared. Oikawa was so used to keeping up with a façade amongst people, that he almost always forgets how much his own feelings hit him when he finally gets to feel them around her.

Her, whose smile made his heart melt and whose tears broke it into pieces.

Not a single moment in time had he ever felt the need to break the precious moments that he might risk losing. But with all things considered, timing was a very strange phenomenon. There was never a right or wrong—it was either this or that, and nothing was ever conclusive. In a lot of ways, Oikawa understood. He understood, that a lot of things was not meant to change, and a lot of things were to remain the same. Even if it meant for him to keep the pent-up frustrations of not being able to fully show how much she meant to him, if it meant that he could still keep her close, then nothing else matters.

But at this very moment, as timing had allowed it, Oikawa was feeling so much, and too much of it. The feelings that he'd stored away so carefully was slowly starting to spill out, like a shaken soda can that was opened without precautions. Why was he not able to control himself, when he's been so good at it for so long? These things weren't supposed to have an expiry date; they were supposed to be well-kept and hidden away until he found the right timing to do otherwise.

Yachi Hitoka was someone who wore a lot of expressions on a daily. Everything from being absolutely ecstatic to be an utterly nervous wreck, Oikawa had always taken notice of the variety of faces that she'd make. But as the wind reaches to the strands that were blowing away from Yachi's forehead, Oikawa can't help but feel overwhelmingly content with how much at ease Yachi was beside him. There were no creases between her eyebrows or averting eyes or nervous stutters. There was just Yachi with her head resting on Oikawa’s lap; a position that they’d obtained after an hour in of the boring movie that they’d decided to watch on a Saturday afternoon.

Even though he'd just whispered his emotions that he'd been so eager to lock away from her, just by watching her calm and tranquil face made him realize that, sometimes, even words that had been said could be taken back.

Yachi was asleep, and she didn't hear him, which was his plan all along—and so he digresses. 

But when he watches the sleeping form of the little blonde shift closer to his lap, Oikawa can't help but feel his beating heart freeze at the moment that had seemingly halted in time.

 

_How much he wishes to hear her say the same._

 

_ii. his_

The second time he'd said it was a little louder, but quiet enough for her to not have heard him say it. They were in the summer heat with her in the water and laughing and splashing water everywhere. Yachi's hair was loosely tied into braids but which were coming out of them because Oikawa  _just wouldn't stop touching her hair._ Yachi hadn't taken notice of the boys that were nearby had been watching and whistling at the sight of Yachi taking off her sweater in order to get in the water in her swimsuit. With Yachi being her usual, oblivious self, such advances had been severely overlooked. But not by Oikawa, who was painfully aware of how cute Yachi was in her swimsuit and messy, wet hair. 

Oikawa Tooru is selfish, and couldn’t help but to put his arms around her a little more often than he’d usually do. Yachi was not his— _but she was his,_ he'd said along with the three sacred words while glaring at the boys on the other side of the beach. Whispering the unaidable words that he'd spoken from last time, Oikawa made sure that he formed the words on his lips as exaggeratedly as possible for the boys nearby to see. 

Yachi was her own being. She was to make her own choices, stand her own ground and say the things she wanted to say. But just for a little bit, just a for a few minutes, or even for only a few seconds, he wanted to show the boys who were ogling at his childhood friend, who was so blissfully (and oh so frustratedly) ignorant of her surroundings, that she was his.

But not really.

_  
But still his._

 

iii.  _accident_

The third time was an accident, and thank god it was one that she didn't hear. Or did she pretend not to hear? At this point, Oikawa's too afraid to ask. Feeling the silence freezing their moment of time for a brief second, Oikawa decides that the only thing that he can do in order to stir away Yachi's attention from the words that had just escaped his lips was to clear his throat and comment on the weather.

The weather was nice, right?

"But Tooru, it's pouring." Yachi points out, which Oikawa awkwardly laughs at.

It was true. It was raining very hard outside, and although such weather usually called for melodramatic, romantic moments, Oikawa couldn’t help but feel the need to escape the moment that was _now._ Had she pretended not to hear him say the words that he’d now said twice to her? Was she uncomfortable?  _Does he need to stay away from her now?_

Oikawa doesn’t hang around to find that out. Instead, he decides for himself that it was exactly what Yachi was thinking, and heads to the door with the excuse of having had forgotten to feed his dog at home.

But he has no dog.

And he also lives right next door.

 _Just play it off as if it was a greeting,_  he thinks as he nervously taps his gym shoes before walking out the door.

"Wait, Tooru!"

Turning around, Oikawa watches an increasingly red Yachi tug his shirt before almost giving him a heart attack by saying,

"Don't..."

Oikawa swallows hard as he reminds himself over and over again in his head that  _she's not saying what you want her to mean.  
_

_  
"Don't you want to stay over a little longer?"_

 

iv. _jealousy_

The fourth time he says it, he's saying it indirectly to her. But for all the wrong reasons, and at the worst timing. He's saying it as if he's declaring that she's his in front of his junior, and he hates it.

She is not for him to claim. Hell, she's not even his to begin with. But all the little moments that he's witnessed her having with the boy in front of him infuriated him to a point where he no longer knew what to do, and the last resort that he'd come up with was this. How dare he casually touch her like that. How dare he make her laugh and help her with the things that she needed help with. But most importantly, _how dare he become jealous of him. Him,_ whose guts he's hated for the longest time, and whose talent rivaled with his hard work.  _Him, who's always too close to her._

Oikawa felt pathetic, to have succumbed to such an ugly thing as jealousy. For the longest time, he'd thought that he was much better than that. That he was mature enough to understand and to support and to give advice. But Yachi had always been an exception. When it came to his little blonde, it didn't matter how many boundaries he'd set for himself, because no matter what, she was always going to be on top of that priority list. Yachi Hitoka wasn't special for the sake of being special. She was special because she was  _her._ Because of the way she ate strawberries and made a silly face when he was feeling down, and because of her heart-stopping smile that she’d give him every time he entered her house. Because she had always been there, and because she'd never wavered. She was strong by her own means, and he knew that.

But how much he'd give to be beside her at all times. 

_  
How pathetic it was of him, to be thinking of thoughts that didn't matter._

 

_v. timing_

The fifth time Oikawa says it, Yachi's wearing earphones. He'd gone through a whole speech of notes that he'd prepared the night before, thinking that it was now or never. He was thinking that, _if everything goes to hell, then he could always turn to volleyball._  Volleyball won't hurt him. Volleyball doesn't have feelings. Volleyball was a game of tactics and hard work and, in his own words, victory.

But such thoughts were put on a pause when he'd worn his heart on his sleeve—until he'd found out (to his dismay) that during the whole time that he'd poured his heart out to the little blonde in front of him, she'd worn earphones and heard nothing of the feelings that he'd so meticulously planned out on his little pieces of paper.

How typical, he'd then thought, while at the same time finding himself feeling a little relieved. A coward he was, indeed.

But for how much longer? How much longer was he going to be willing to let himself drive himself over? How much longer did he need to prepare his heart for rejection? Was he afraid of losing her? That the friendship they'd gone through so much to keep to just break by having him merely be honest with his own feelings?

It wasn't fair to himself, and it wasn't fair to her. 

The train that they were on wasn't particularly crowded, and yet Oikawa felt like all eyes were on him when he does the bold move of taking out one of Yachi's earphones. But at the last second he retreats, and lets instead a long sigh as he puts his chin on Yachi's shoulder to whisper in her ear,

  
_"What are you listening to?"_  
  
  
  
_vi. rain_

The sixth time Oikawa says the words, he can't believe that he's actually saying them. Loud and clear, with her eyes locked with his, in the rain after having had been trying to find her. Finding her in the rain by the swings, there was no patience left that Oikawa had for himself. Taking her cold face that was drenched in rainwater between his palms, Oikawa tells her the words that he's been practicing over and over;

"I love you", he almost whispers as he felt his desperation leak through his words, "so, so much."

The rain drips from his hair and hers, but nothing mattered. _This,_ Oikawa thinks, _will be the moment I regret everything._ This moment, he believes, is the one moment that he will go back to when he’s turned eighty and sad and all alone.  But just for this moment, _just for this very moment,_ he decides to let it go. To not care—because all his eyes can focus on when he finally feels warmth on his skin in the midst of the pouring rain is Yachi's palm touching his cheek as she says the very words that he’d longed to hear for so long.

_  
"Me too," she whispers as she stands on her tip-toes to sloppily give him a kiss to his lips, "so much."_

 

 


End file.
